DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: 12 Things You Might Have Missed in “Marooned”

Tonight’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow was, in spite of its fairly bottle episode feel, a pretty heavy episode for Easter eggs, DC Comics references, and other knowing winks and nods at the audience.

…And then there was that ending. Did it give you chills?

So…what did we see? What did we miss?

Read on, and comment below.

BONNIE BAXTER

Bonnie Baxter, Captain of the Acheron, is in fact an existing character from Time Masters lore.

While working as an academic, she had an affair with another professor at her college, and when that affair threatened to ruin both of their careers, Baxter tracked down Rip Hunter, who was assembling a group of adventurers to travel through time with him. Both she and her black sheep brother Corky joined Rip’s cause.

ACHERON

Her ship, too, is a reference.

In the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe, Acheron was the name of a powerful ghost who briefly ran with Shadowpact. In the post-Flashpoint DCU, it’s a demon. There’s also a location, which appeared during L.E.G.I.O.N. at one point and given the significance of time travel to the Legion brand, it feels like that might be the inspiration here.

In any event, it looks like many of the timeships we see in the future might also prove to be clever references…!

(Yes, I know that’s the Waverider pictured.)

TIME BANDITS

Time Bandits didn’t exactly go like this, but as soon as I started hearing about “time pirates” in this episode, I thought of the ’80s cult classic from Terry Gilliam, director of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

RICK STAR, SPACE RANGER

In the comics, Rick Starr — the character Professor Stein enjoyed watching serials of as a kid — is a millionaire adventurer.

The son of wealthy businessman Thaddeus Starr, Rick became the Space Ranger to protect Earth from criminals and alien invaders by using his money to create a base in the Asteroid Belt. 

 

STAR TREK/STAR WARS

Ray Palmer was just full of iconic science-fiction references today!

He sat in the captain’s chair, making Star Trek references, and then segued seamlessly from Star Trek to Star Wars, when he said that what he was doing in evading an attack was “more like Sulu — or Han Solo!”

IMPERIEX

Imperiex, one of the villains whose name was a secret code between Rip and Gideon, was a Superman villain who attacked the DC Universe in an event called Our Worlds at War.

The character was enough of a threat to Earth that Superman created a team — one which included Doomsday — to take him out. So it’s understandable that Rip would use Imperiex’s attacks as an example that Ray is a badass.

KANJAR RO

Another villain whose name set off alarm bells on the Waverider, Kanjar Ro is the dictator of a planet that’s pretty much always at war with its neighboring worlds.

He’s also one of the earliest Justice League villains, and many years later was briefly a member of R.E.B.E.L.S.

He’s a character whose physical appearance changes quite a lot, not least of all because there was a point where he disguised himself as Despero.

RIP’S REAL NAME

Fans of the comics already knew that Hunter isn’t Rip’s real last name.

…It’s actually Carter. As in Michael Jon Carter, the superhero better known as Booster Gold and Rip’s dad.

The idea that Time Masters didn’t use their real names — so that villains couldn’t smother them in their cribs — isn’t a new one for the TV show. It’s been hinted at for a while, and was established outright by Geoff Johns during his JSA run (I believe). It was a key piece of the mythology during the recent Booster Gold run by Johns and Dan Jurgens.

PARLEY

If you’ve seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, you probably remember parley.

Basically, the idea is that as part of the “pirate code,” a parley is a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of a truce or other matters.

That’s what one crook (Rory) invoked in order to get the others to trust him.

COBURN

Could Time Master Coburn be a reference to Arrow writer Jake Coburn?

Doesn’t seem unlikely. After all, while it’s far more likely to use comic book creators or characters as throwaway names in these shows, we have seen showrunners allow the writers and producers to include their own names a few times.

SLINKY

Ray Palmer’s first pet was apparently named after a best-selling toy.

One that “crawls.”

VALOR

Jon Valor is a very, very different character in the comics.

The time pirate seen in tonight’s episode is best known as the “Black Pirate” in DC Comics, and he’s a British nobleman who took to the high seas to terrorize the Spanish during the late 16th century.